

382
E
UR
A
MERICA
Sources: European Parliament (2009, 2014b)
.
Figure 7 Percentage of co-decision files adopted at 1st, 2nd or 3rd reading
in Figure 7). Between 2009 and 2014, the percentage of early
agreements peaked at 85%, indicating that since the Treaty of
Lisbon came into force, 85% of the time, when the ordinary
legislative procedure was applied, it was the chair of the relevant
Council Working Party and the chair of COREPER who evaluated
the possibility of an agreement, made contact, and launched
negotiations with the EP (Kirpsza, 2013: 195).
In a Council composed of 28 member states, it is
understandable that, from the view point of Council presidencies
eager to accomplish more during their six-month terms, informal
decision-making through trilogues would be preferred over formal
channels. Not only does early input from the EP facilitate
consensus-building within the Council, but negotiations during first
reading are also more flexible (as they lack a fixed time limit
imposed by the Treaty of Lisbon) than are later stages of the
procedure (European Parliament, 2009: 11-12, 2014a: 5). Such
efficiency, however, is gained at the expense of transparency and